More Games Opinion

Samsung says it's not jacking up Apple's prices, a German board game company is whacking iOS apps for trademark violations, and Apple is packing stores into two new countries. The remainders for Wednesday, November 14, 2012 aren't lacking.

Apple's softening on employees with outside projects, but it's harder than diamonds in the retail sphere. And an Apple co-founder gets the hard-boiled treatment. The remainders for Tuesday, November 13, 2012 are hardy souls.

Building a fast gaming PC is easier than ever. Building a fast gaming PC on a tight budget is a little harder—not because of the building, but because of the shopping. You have to scour the web (or your favorite retail stores) for the right prices on components.

Since most free games are (usually) made by small teams on shorter timelines, they have to scale down their games in comparison to AAA titles with budgets in the tens of millions and hundreds on staff. Scaling down doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, though; sometimes whittling a game down to its core elements results in a game with a laserlike focus on what makes it fun. This week we’ve got free games that make less into more in different ways.

Digital Storm’s Marauder gaming desktop is perfectly named, but for all the wrong reasons. The only thing this system is going to plunder is your bank account, and it will leave little to show for the pillaging. True to its design, the Marauder is decently geared for gaming given its budget appeal ($999). And if you're buying the PC simply as an affordable gaming system, you'll do fine. But in nearly every other respect, this system suffers from critical deficiencies that make it less appealing for general use.

This week we’ve got 5 different games that redefine difficultly in games. Some are hard to play, some are hard to watch and some are just brutally difficult for everyone involved. If you’re looking for a game that challenges you, each of these will fit the bill in their own way.

We love zombies. Correction: we love slaying zombies. That's why we're excited that The Walking Dead: Episode 4 - "Around Every Corner" was released today on PC with little warning. It seems that the latest episode of Telltale's point-and-click game takes a turn for the macabre, as the walking dead have become the slayers (I promise, no spoilers). If you've been playing The Walking Dead since the series began, you've survived three action-packed and emotional episodes; the group has changed, loyalties have shifted but the captivating drama and tension of the core game remains the same.

A smoggy cityscape. A single lampost cocooned by shadowy tentacles. An introduction that promises the ability to cavort with devils, converse with cats, wrestle tigers and navigate resolutions. A sly greeting, "Welcome, Delicious Friend."

Remember Morrowind? The third chapter in the popular Elder Scrolls series remains one of the finest roleplaying experiences available, but time has not been kind to the game's aging engine. Fortunately, enterprising fans have stepped in. The newly-released Morrowind Overhaul is a compilation of mods, programs and files that intend to drag the 10-year old roleplaying game into the future with a slew of upgrades. Designed by the folks at Ornitocopter, it's a rare treat: the sights and sounds of Morrowind's Tamriel have never been so stunning, and there's no better time to dive in -- perhaps while you wait for The Elder Scrolls Online to surface sometime next year.

After the last few weeks of game jams drowning us in free games we're back to the regular schedule of small, indie developers making games for your thrifty pleasure. These games are still just as good (if not better) than what we've previously shown you, but they're a bit harder to collect into one big theme. In other words, this week's games are kind of all over the place. Sometimes that's nice.

Late last week I got a chance to dive head-first into the upcoming zombie survival MMO The War Z, with Executive Producer Sergey Titov showing me around. Here's what I learned while racking up a significant virtual body count.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that Assassin's Creed 2 is one of my favorite games of this generation. There was a pure sense of exploration and discovery that I haven't found in any game since, not even the semi-sequels Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or Revelations. Since that experience, I've been looking for a game to revive that feeling, and, while things have changed in games since Assassin's Creed 2 was originally released back in 2009, I found that feeling while exploring the frontier in Assassin's Creed 3, and it feels good.

After the announcement of Halo 4 at E3 2012, fans everywhere have been pining for more information and a deeper look at the upcoming sequel to the hugely popular Halo trilogy. Last week I was invited for some hands-on time with 343 Industries' first attempt at a true Halo game, and walked away more impressed than I had thought possible.

When people think of great first-person shooters they typically recall Doom and Unreal Tournament. Not me, though; I think back to the game that really started it for me, the one that did single-player right: Half-Life. Published by Valve Software in 1998, the original Half-Life was a journey through an apocalyptic experience at the Black Mesa labs in New Mexico as seen through the eyes of a brave but silent hero, Gordon Freeman. Now, 14 years later, a team of modders have released Black Mesa, a recreation of that seminal experience with Valve's Source engine. It looks marvelous.

The big news out of Valve this week is their move into the living room with a new version of Steam. I got a chance to poke around Steam's new Big Picture beta and while I was impressed by what I saw, I don't think this is the ultimate solution to gaming on the TV some may be hoping for.

Some bad headaches can occur when trying to keep up with all the content for big AAA games. Deals are made and release dates are scattered everywhere. That's just the case for the Battlefield 3 downloadable content, which has four release dates depending which platform you own and if you are a premium member. The third expansion, Armored Kill, drops today--for some.